Friday December 3 2010

Friday December 3, 2010


Its now been a week that we have been in country. At this point most of us are asking, what day is it anyway? Spending each day in a different village doing the same thing with only dinner, sleep and breakfast in between has that effect on you. It is important with that in mind not to fall into an attitude of complacency - sort of the same day different stuff - mentality. The people we see today as patients, and the people who are prayed for are each experiencing Jesus for the first time. If we fail to keep that in mind we run the risk of letting our complacency interfere with our purpose. This is a lesson to take home to our daily life as well. Yesterday it is estimated that fewer than 5% of the over 400 people we treated in the clinic had ever heard of Jesus! Can you imagine that? Can you imagine anywhere in Fremont where 5% or less of the people have ever even heard of Christ? We take so much for granted in our world. At the same time folks in Cambodia take certain things for granted as well. In speaking through our interpreters with some of these folks to get a sense of what their life is like I learn that most of them can not read or write. While the current generation of children are being educated, the lost generation has had a devastating effect on this country. The lost generation is what the children of the parents murdered in the killing fields are called. From the early 70s around 1973 through the early 80s Pol Pot a communist general who took control of much of the country and then fought to keep it for those years, murdered as many of the educated class as he could. His goal was to kill all teachers, all government officials, all business owners, all Christians, and all professionals. He nearly succeeded. At that time the population of Cambodia was about 8 - 10 million people. His regime the Khmer Rouge, murdered more than 3 million people. Those people were largely the cultural glue that held the society together. The long term effect of the elimination of these people left the country without its most valued assets. Educated people. People who cared for their country and with their skills could improve the society and culture.

Absent these people, education was no longer a priority. Schools closed. No one cared if there was an education system. Businesses deteriorated. Basic goods and services disappeared. Health care deteriorated. People were no longer taught basic sanitation and hygiene.

Restoration of this society has progressed in the larger cities such as Phone Penh and Bateman where schools operate, hospitals and clinics are open and business is moving ahead fast. But in the remote villages the priorities are food to eat, clothing to wear and shelter from the weather. Education and health care take a back seat to these pressing needs.

These circumstances directly resulted in the deterioration of this society and culture and are why there is such a high rate of sickness and disease associated with basic hygiene and sanitation. It is why poor sanitation and hygiene habits gives rise to chronic urethrits in both male and female. It is why a simple case of conjunctivitis - pink eye - left untreated with basic hygiene leads to the loss of an eye. It is why TB is chronic in a large part of the population. The lack of knowledge as to why you cannot swim, bath, wash your clothes, wash your kitchen utensils, drink and fish from the same water source is why there is such a problem with parasites and worms.

Providing answers to these problems in the name of Christ is advancing the church of Christ in Cambodia due in large part to the work of Transform Asia.

In today’s clinic we see about 250 patients. One of my early patients to day is an 80 year old man who tells me that he has recently been in the city where he was in the hospital for kidney disease. He goes on to tell me that due to his lost health he has lost all hope in life and desires that my god (this is him speaking) will give him hope! He asks me if my god gives people hope! Our trip leader Sam Hopper and I pray for this man before he is treated at the clinic and after being treated he spends more time with the prayer team. When he is getting ready to leave he comes to me and tells me that he will remember this day for the rest of his life because he now believes that there is hope and he now believes in Jesus.! What a great way to begin the day. We see a large number of landmine victims today with missing limbs, mostly legs. Most of them are men but there are a few women amongst them. There are still a few large areas in the country side where mines have not been fully cleared, so in addition to some of these folks’ being victims of land mines as soldiers, some are simple farmers who also are maimed when they literally stumble upon a mine.

Tomorrow we will be going to a floating city to do our clinic. This is a village that literally is in a lake and the entire village floats on the lake top. It is the first time that transform Asia will have been to there to bring health care and the message of Christ.

Sorry about no pictures today, for some reason they are taking very long to upload and are then being tagged as a secuuirty error. I will see if I can put pictures up on another site and put in a link, but the connection here in Battambang is rather slow, so it may have to wait.

Until next time God Bless.